Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal and Middlesex County Prosecutor Andrew C. Carey announced that a Roman Catholic priest pleaded guilty Monday to sexually assaulting a teenage girl in the early 1990s.
Father Thomas P. Ganley, 63, of Phillipsburg, N.J., pleaded guilty to second-degree sexual assault before Superior Court Judge Diane Pincus in Middlesex County.
In pleading guilty, Ganley admitted that he engaged in sexual acts with the victim when she was 16 or 17 years old, during a time when he had supervisory authority over her.
Ganley was a priest at Saint Cecelia Church in the Iselin section of Woodbridge when the criminal acts occurred, and he had supervisory authority over the victim in his role as head of the Youth Ministry for the parish.
Under the plea agreement, the state will recommend that Ganley be sentenced to four years in prison.
He will be required to register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law. He also will be prohibited from having any contact with the victim and prohibited from having unsupervised contact with children under the age of 18.
Read more at WFMZ